May 18^th, and 19^th, 2010 another joint symposium of the Section „forest soils“ of the German Soil Science Society an the Section “Forest and Water” of the DVFFA was held in the city of Freiburg, continuing a well-established tradition of joint symposia that have been held in earlier years (2008, 2006, 2004, …). In light of recent developments (first results of the second nationwide forest soil inventory BZE2 had just become available) we chose “soil property assessment – recent trends and dangers”. For the first time, the Institute for Forest Ecology and Forest Inventories of the Johann-Heinrich-von-Thünen-Institut in Eberswalde (vTI; central evaluation office of the pan-German soil inventory BZE) was included as sponsoring institution of the symposium.

Oral and poster presentations covering the issues

• Status and trends of soil chemical properties
• Pools of nitrogen, sulfur, and carbon in forest soils and their mobilization potential
• Scientific and technical tools for the calculation of element stocks and element budgets soils
• Water and air budget/transport in forest soils with particular respect to climate change 

As with the preceding joint symposia also the most recent symposium was well-accepted (50 enrolled participants) and characterized by intensive and constructive exchange of experiences and opinions between scientists from Federal and Provincial Research Institutes and Universities. Important presentations are compiled in a Special Edition of the „Berichte Freiburger Forstliche Forschung“ (non-peer-reviewed; volume in preparation). They can be retrieved from the Forest Research Institute of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg (FVA)

(http://www.fva-bw.de/publikationen/veroeffentlichungen.php?pfad=fff_bericht) in due time. The participation of the vTI has been acknowledged very positively and shall be continued in future symposia.